Install IonCube Loader in Localhost

Hello developer fellows, in this article, we are going to learn how you can install IonCube Loader in Localhost. Installing an IonCube PHP extension can be quite hard for beginners, but it is not impossible of course. In this topic, I’m going to guide you step by step to install IonCube locally.

First of all, we need to know what exactly the IonCube is? and what exactly it is used for? I know that some of you people will be very familiar with the IonCube, but those who don’t know should read introduction part of this extension.

What is IonCube?

IonCube PHP encoder was founded in 2002. It is a tool that encrypts files written in the PHP programming language (.php files). IonCube’s encryption system is used by PHP developers to protect their program’s source code so that any unauthorized person could not use the program illegally or couldn’t make any changes to files.

What is IonCube Loader?

IonCube Loader is a PHP extension that reads and executes those files that are encrypted by IonCube. If you have encrypted some of your PHP files then you have to install IonCube Loader extension to the server computer. You can use it on your local server too.

Nowadays almost all server computers can be found IonCube installed by default. If you want to figure out whether your server has IonCube installed or not, you can create a phpinfo.php file and search for “Ioncube”. You can also contact your Host Provider to grab such pieces of information.

How to install IonCube Loader in localhost

As I’ve said before, If you want to run a PHP file which is encrypted by IonCube then you should have IonCube installed on your Apache server. In this tutorial, we will cover the installation of the IonCube Loader on a local server such as WAMP, XAMPP, MAMP & LAMP etc.

There is two possible way to install IonCube Loader in Localhost, the first one is manual installation which is pretty hard for beginners, and the second one is installation through a Loader Wizard. We would go with the Loader Wizard because it is the simplest way to install the IonCube Loader.

Carefully read all the steps mentioned below to properly install IonCube Loader in Localhost.

Step-1. Downloading IonCube

Visit IonCube’s official website http://www.ioncube.com/loaders.php and download the Loader Wizard

Step-2. Installing IonCube Loader through Loader Wizard

Extract the downloaded file, you will find a loader-wizard.php file there. You have to run this file using your localhost. So put loader-wizard.php file on your localhost and run this file using a browser.

The Loader wizard helps you to find the appropriate package for your computer. Download the Loader suggested by the wizard and after extracting it you will find ioncube folder, you have to paste this folder into C:\wamp\bin\apache\Apache2.4.4\bin\ioncube directory (as per your Apache version).

Step-3 Updating php.ini file

After placing the IonCube Loader in the appropriate directory now it is the time to tell PHP that we’ve installed a new PHP extension, to do so we have to update the php.ini file. You can find this file C:\wamp\bin\apache\Apache2.4.4\bin\php.ini here.

Open php.ini file as administrator and Ctrl + F and search for zend_extension and add the following code just above it

zend_extension = "c:/wamp/bin/apache/Apache2.4.4/bin/ioncube/ioncube_loader_win_5.5.dll"

Note

IonCube zend_extension should the first zend_extension to be loaded in php.ini file. After making changes you have to restart the wamp server.

Checking the IonCube Loader installation

Ater completing all the installation steps, now its time to check whether the installation went well or not.

To check the installation, run the loader-wizard.php file again. If it is installed correctly you will be notified as “Loader Installed”, but if it is not installed correctly then wizard gives some suggestions to install the extension properly, just go the suggestions and make recommended changes.

After completing all the suggestions you will get the Loader Installed notification after executing the loader-wizard.php file.

Install IonCube Loader in WAMP

Above video is a property of John Dugan

I hope that you have learned how to install IonCube Loader in Localhost by this article. In next article, I’ll write about how to encrypt PHP files using IonCube PHP Encoder.

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